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FIFA seeks $1B+ (per 4 years) from EA for name usage

nytimes.com

31–40 of 95 posts

Re: FIFA seeks $1B+ (per 4 years) from EA for name usage

#31
You have to understand that EA makes more than $1.5bn annually with a steep upwards trajectory. They are achieving this with mostly predatory micro transactions. They also have now 4 generations of game engines running the Fifa 22 games. One for the switch, one for pc and old-gen consoles and one for the new gen. If you are playing on anything else than new gen consoles you are paying 60$ for an updated xml file and some art assets players are also loosing all the progress and money spent over the last year.

That said FIFA is at least as shady as EA so they can both burn to the ground.

Re: FIFA seeks $1B+ (per 4 years) from EA for name usage

#32
post #23
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> EA is chump change compared to world football. They've got no leverage, and despite the dislike for FIFA everywhere, a power struggle between the two with EA casting itself as the righteous party will only invite backlash. You sure about that? EA's revenue for the last fiscal year was 5.6 billion dollars. FIFA's revenue for the last 4 years is about equal to that dollar amount. There's a lot more money in video gam…

I'm not talking about revenue. Football isn't really an industry, and it's not rational. If you want to compare the cultural and social footprint of football to something it's video games as a whole, not EA on its lonesome.

I mean you could probably supplant the entire FIFA organization with $10B if you wanted to take a really big swing. Money talks and if you funnel the right amount of money to the best players you will create the best sports league.

Re: FIFA seeks $1B+ (per 4 years) from EA for name usage

#33
post #3

Such a good opportunity for EA to mount an Anti-FIFA corruption campaign in game. Mess with some trade rules. Images of Sep Blatter bathing in the rain of cash at the press conference. Force players to choose between FI-FI-FA legacy league and the new hotness. FIFA are corrupt from top to bottom. EA have a direct channel to a huge slab of their market to tear the FIFA politicians with their snouts in the trough a new…

>Do you prefer Ivanka or Hunter flavours of corruption?

Such a dishonest comparison. One was nepotistically involved in day to day operations of the American government, put into diplomatic situations in an official capacity, even attempted to be named World Bank President.

The other is completely divorced from politics and uses his name to sell artwork

This kind of false equivalence does great service to the worst-of-all-time American corruption we experienced in 2016-2020, and helps ensure that it will return.

Which flavor do I prefer? Obviously the one without nepotism, where the child has nothing to do with politics, government and serves in no capacity, official or otherwise. And you should to. Shame on you for pretending otherwise.

When you can't differentiate between nefarious nepotistic public corruption and "using the family name to sell paintings", you do your part to ensure it can and will get worse.

>We can't even vote that out so the Military Industrial Complex is pretty safe

The Military Industrial Complex is very mad at Joe for ending the Afghanistan war and actually pulling troops out. While the previous President admitted he would have left thousands of troops, defied the agreement, and continued the war.

Once again, your false equivalence makes you say "both sides" when there is a real difference.

The war in Afghanistan ended because only one side had the cajones to stick it to the military industrial complex and actually end it, regardless of the optics, the politics and the cost. But you're playing cynical games and you refuse to admit actual change, because it makes you look/feel smart to lie about everyone being the same. Ironically you are serving the military industrial complex right now, who desperately want "one side" out and the other side back, because they can't control the current side nearly as well, and are very upset about the end of the war. Good job helping them, as false equivalence is a powerful tool in their propaganda belt.

This is how the worst outcomes become reality -- being unable and unwilling to appreciate any good at all.

Re: FIFA seeks $1B+ (per 4 years) from EA for name usage

#34
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the only value proposition of the game, as compared to competition, is to have real team and player names and their real up-to-date stats, then it's only fair to pay properly for that business advantage. 250M per year seems fair to me. If they don't want to, I'm sure there'll be another company willing to pay that amount for their game can be called “FIFA 2022”. AFAIK, oil companies also has to pay for the right t…

I am not sure player names and statistics are actually protected though. So it’s more 250m/year to get access to branding like team logos, FIFA on the box, etc.

Player names are trademarked the same way Louis Vuitton is trademarked as a brand.

For famous players, that may even mean they can introduce brand names that otherwise would be ruled confusing. You can’t start selling Louis Vuiton bags, but Messi clothing and shoes won a legal battle against the older Massi brand (https://www.bbc.com/news/business-54193973)

Re: FIFA seeks $1B+ (per 4 years) from EA for name usage

#35
post #3

Such a good opportunity for EA to mount an Anti-FIFA corruption campaign in game. Mess with some trade rules. Images of Sep Blatter bathing in the rain of cash at the press conference. Force players to choose between FI-FI-FA legacy league and the new hotness. FIFA are corrupt from top to bottom. EA have a direct channel to a huge slab of their market to tear the FIFA politicians with their snouts in the trough a new…

> Such a good opportunity for EA to mount an Anti-FIFA corruption campaign in game. That would be next level irony. EA, the stewards of justice and defenders of sports.

>EA, the stewards of justice and defenders of sports.

Ha. No. But they do apparently literally have a billion very good reasons to stand up to corruption. Total self-interest. But it also sure wouldn't do their reputation any harm at all to claim a few FIFA supercharged-hoovering trough-snouts' scalps.

Re: FIFA seeks $1B+ (per 4 years) from EA for name usage

#36
post #3

Such a good opportunity for EA to mount an Anti-FIFA corruption campaign in game. Mess with some trade rules. Images of Sep Blatter bathing in the rain of cash at the press conference. Force players to choose between FI-FI-FA legacy league and the new hotness. FIFA are corrupt from top to bottom. EA have a direct channel to a huge slab of their market to tear the FIFA politicians with their snouts in the trough a new…

Honestly, I am not sure who is more disliked. FIFA or EA.

I’m sure there are a lot of people my age that remember EA extremely fondly for the things they did decades ago.

M.U.L.E. and Seven Cities of Gold and Archon and many others were the best games some of us grew up on.

I haven’t been involved in gaming except for the 2 I occasionally play with my kids so I’m blissfully unaware of anything EA has done recently. But back then, they were really amazing.

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2018-09-16-seeing-farther...

Re: FIFA seeks $1B+ (per 4 years) from EA for name usage

#37
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the only value proposition of the game, as compared to competition, is to have real team and player names and their real up-to-date stats, then it's only fair to pay properly for that business advantage. 250M per year seems fair to me. If they don't want to, I'm sure there'll be another company willing to pay that amount for their game can be called “FIFA 2022”. AFAIK, oil companies also has to pay for the right t…

I am not sure player names and statistics are actually protected though. So it’s more 250m/year to get access to branding like team logos, FIFA on the box, etc.

There must be something about the names as well too. The names used in PES were a continuous joke: https://www.theversed.com/51686/pro-evo-names-years/#.LcxSir...

Re: FIFA seeks $1B+ (per 4 years) from EA for name usage

#38
You now have to paid FIFA, every single team in the European League, and Champion League for using their name, logos, colour of their shirt. etc etc. Extra money for having big name player faces for marketing on the box or graphics as well as their 3D face modelling appearing in their game.

How much of that $60 you are paying actually goes to the game and not some licensing?

I am not against licensing fees per se, but it is getting out of hand. You would expect they have more resources with all the success to continue to improve football / soccer games. But no, I have so much more fun with Winning Eleven / Pro Evolution Soccer in the late 90s and 00s than all the crap we have now.

It is actually a lot of the same with Remasters, something about the act of making games is lost.

Re: FIFA seeks $1B+ (per 4 years) from EA for name usage

#39
post #2

Sales of games like this always amazed me. It seems like every year somebody tweaks a yaml config with the player details and hits build - voilà brand new game is out, time to shell out another $60.

I'm a somewhat frequent player. While yes player updates are a part of it there's is more. Firstly players and rosters usually gets updates throughout, so if I open my FIFA 21 now it would certainly update rosters.

In new titles usually we'll get some new leagues (nice for people who wants to play a team/league in their country).

IIRC in FIFA 22 you can create your own team now (waited for that one for a long time).

Worth noting that stuff that people want like a much better player career mode seems to never be updated.

Re: FIFA seeks $1B+ (per 4 years) from EA for name usage

#40
post #33
post #3

Such a good opportunity for EA to mount an Anti-FIFA corruption campaign in game. Mess with some trade rules. Images of Sep Blatter bathing in the rain of cash at the press conference. Force players to choose between FI-FI-FA legacy league and the new hotness. FIFA are corrupt from top to bottom. EA have a direct channel to a huge slab of their market to tear the FIFA politicians with their snouts in the trough a new…

>Do you prefer Ivanka or Hunter flavours of corruption? Such a dishonest comparison. One was nepotistically involved in day to day operations of the American government, put into diplomatic situations in an official capacity, even attempted to be named World Bank President. The other is completely divorced from politics and uses his name to sell artwork This kind of false equivalence does great service to the worst-o…

> uses his name to sell artwork

Sure, because that's the extent of his corruption.

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